Thread: Why are Damascus steel razors so expensive?

Damascus blades take much more time and fuel to make then a standard billet and are a higher degree of difficulty so only blade smiths of good experience are best suited to making them.

The process for making on is to take 2 pieces of metal, one a high carbon and the other one will have a high nickle content or something similar to give the best contrast when the blade is submerged in the etching acid. Then to stack the two pieces alternating them and start to heat them up. The stack of metal will be heated to a semi molten state so when they are hammered they will fuse together. Once it has been fully fused the metal will then be drawn out and folded. This process of forge welding, drawing out and folding will be done until the desired number of layers is reached. In some cases the number of layers can be in the 100,000 or more range, then there are some that may only require 100 or so layers.

Also there are some patterns that will be ruined if they are ground to much, so on some instances the blade will need to be forged most of the way before one can start to grind it so the pattern isn't destroyed.

A lot of work, a lot of fuel and a lot of skill drive up the price.